The advertising watchdog has banned a TV advert for an internet phone company for misleading consumers over the picture and audio quality of making a video call.

Skype's television campaign featured a new father using the online phone service with a webcam so he could show his parents his baby.

The Advertising Standards Authority upheld five complaints that the advert exaggerated the picture and sound quality that the Skype service actually provided.

Skype argued that the advert, by the Albion agency, was meant to market the ability to make a video call, not the hardware that made it possible. Call quality was determined by factors including broadband speed, so every user's experience could well differ, it said.

The company added that it wanted to show the service in its "best light" and therefore used the best equipment possible. For technical reasons it was not possible to use a webcam, as users would at home, in the advert for the service, so it had simulated the experience.

Skype argued it had not misled consumers because the quality shown in the advert was achievable at home for users with its latest software.

The ASA accepted that Skype could not show a video for technical reasons but was critical of the company nonetheless.

"While we understood the technology would continue to evolve and improve, we considered that viewers would infer that the sound and picture quality depicted in the ad was typical of the performance that all users could achieve," it ruled.

It concluded that the advert was therefore misleading and should not be shown again on TV without clearly stating that the quality of Skype video calls depended on factors such as broadband speed.

Skype is not the first digital media company to fall foul of the ad watchdog over marketing claims. Apple has had two TV ads banned by the ASA for misleading consumers over the internet capabilities of the 3G iPhone.